Pinnacle's future is on the line as officials meet

Pinnacle Charter School leaders will sit down with New York State Education Department officials this afternoon to hear more detailed shutdown plans for the K-8 school.

Linda Marszalek, the school’s chief academic officer, says she hopes the state will reconsider its plans this year, given the difficulty in finding new schools for Pinnacle’s 560 children, many from impoverished homes, just days before school begins.

“I’m hopeful the state education department will want to come to the table to work together for the best interests of the kids,” Marszalek said. “We all want the same thing. It just doesn’t make sense a week before school starts.”

Pinnacle’s attorney, Lisa Coppola, has also filed a motion in state Supreme Court arguing the school should stay open. The legal argument centers around the federal No Child Left Behind law, which mandates every student has a right to a spot to a school in good standing. The Buffalo City School District is already struggling with that dilemma, saying it only has from 300-500 spots in the face of more than 2,200 transfer requests this year.

The state’s Board of Regents voted in 2012 to shutter Pinnacle based on its rate of student achievement, but the school’s attorneys obtained a stay on that action while they fought the decision in court. But the stay lapsed on Thursday after the state Court of Appeals refused to hear the case.

The next day, Pinnacle leaders received word the state Education Department planned to close the school -- touching off a scramble among school leaders, teachers, parents and students. Pinnacle students would presumably have to transfer to Buffalo schools. The school held an emergency meeting for parents yesterday.

Pinnacle opened in September 2003. In a news release, the school said its language and math scores have risen dramatically relative to other schools in recent tests.